Lion Hearts engl version
by Soraki01
Summary: I ll overwrite ch 1 and 2! overwritten ch 2 and new ch 4! Naruto and Iruka remain as the only survivors of their Clan. When a new tribe arises the leader of said clan puts the world in fear an terror. SO Naruto and Iruka go on the way to stop this leader.
1. The beginning of all

**Lion Hearts**

Hey, here´s my second story. I hope you´ll like it^^

But before I begin I would like to ask you something! Please write comments! Without comments I can´t know if you like my story or not^^ so please write some, when you want, that I continue!^^

I don´t want to force anybody into writing! It´s just, that it would make me really happy!^^

If there are questions about my story, don´t be shy, just ask! I´m not going to bite you! I´m a really nice person, plus I like feedback a lot!^^

**Warning:** SasuNaru (maybe KakaIru^^), shonen-ai/slight Yaoi. M-preg, Naruto is not too uke-ish, don´t worry!^^ I don´t like him, when he´s too weak! I also don´t like him, when he can do anything!^^

Let´s just say he´s a little badass-uke ´kay?^^

Sakura and some other characters (maybe Karin?) will be mean and such … (sorry, need bad guys!^^) I also don´t like her very much … don´t know why … but I couldn´t stand her from the beginning! When you like her, you should leave this story alone!

All characters will be lions! But they can turn into a Human with cat ears and tail! (Humanoids)

**Others:** I´m not going to let them have a too big mane! I know it´s important for lions but … whatever!^^ Even so, I´m going to write some fighting scenes, so please don´t be too hard on me! It´s my first time^^ When you´re wondering about the fact, that my lions can grin, blush or such. Look at the lion king!^^ The Artist Clawshawk agreed, that I could borrow her lion pics! When you want to see them, the link is on my profile, at the story! When you want to write a comment about the appearance, write it at Clawshawks pages! I think, she would be very happy about it! Just take a look, the pictures are really great!^^

So but now it´s enough! On with the story^^

**Attention: I´m going to overwrite and correct (or change) chapter 1 and 2, because... well they suck! So if you had problems understanding the chapters while you were reading I´d like you to read them again, because they are better/easier to understand now! I´ll say in each chapter if I did the overwriting!**

**P.S. after I´m finished with chapter 1 I will upload the corrected chapter 2 and the translated chapter 4! I won´t correct chapter 3 because I think that it´s well written! If you think otherwise, please say so! I won´t bite you because of it! **

**Chapter 1**

**The beginning of all  
**

_It was a warm and sunny day in a desert. Not even a single cloud could be seen in the sky as a couple of birds occupied it. All in all, it was a quiet and harmonic day. There were a few birds hiding and chirping in the nearby bushes and trees. A gentle breeze blew over small green grass areas. But this tranquility was disturbed abruptly when two little creatures ran over the ground and scared the birds out of their hidings. The two of them only left a cloud of dust behind them as they continued with their little competition. _

_They had covered a great distance when they finally collapsed after several minutes. They lay side by side, just a few inches away from each other. Still trying to catch their breath as one declared, with an exhausted but still satisfied grin on his face:"... ha ha ... see ... I told you*ha* that I would win!" _

_"Hn, you wish! *ha*Dobe, you clearly collapsed before me *ha*!" replied the other._

_The yellow-colored lion slowly turned his head to his still heavy breathing black-blue colored rival. One could clearly see the pout on the face of the yellow-colored lion, "you know, that I don´t like it, when you call me that!" as suddenly as his pout had appeared, it disappeared again and the young lion jumped up, the fatigue already forgotten. In his sky blue eyes glinted something as he stepped a little closer towards his rival: "Ne Sasuke, what do you think of a little revenge?" _

_The black-blue colored looked at him slightly shocked. It was just too unbelievable. Naruto had lain exhausted on the ground, just a few minutes ago and now he was in top shape again! It was well known that Naruto was pretty hyperactive and had great stamina, but his regeneration ability was almost incredible! Sasuke of course, couldn´t allow himself to look weaker than his friend/rival, so he brushed aside his fatigue and said _

"_Hn, you're sure? You´ll lose anyway!"Sasuke grinned showing his sharp teeth in the process. Naruto flashed him an angry look and narrowed his eyes a little, "we will see Teme!" Sasukes eyes sparkled with amusement as he let the rules be lain down by Naruto. _

"_If we run a little further ahead, we´ll eventually arrive at the river. The one who reaches it first wins!"_

_"Hn" was all Sasuke had to say. He walked over to Naruto and stood next to him, "well, then, here we go!" Naruto said, as the two leaned against the ground_

_"Ready" Naruto pushed himself even deeper into the ground, while sticking his backside into the air._

_"Steady" Narutos tail twitched with excitement _

_"GO!" _

_After Naruto had finally given the green light, the two dashed so fast across the sandy ground, that they formed a huge cloud of dust behind them. But they didn´t care about that at all. They had just one thing on their minds, and that was to defeat the other._

_Sasuke and Naruto ran past many bushes, shrubs and trees. Occasionally, they even frightened some animals out of their hidings, as they approached their destination - the river – more and more. When the river finally appeared on the horizon, Naruto noticed it immediately, and accelerated his pace. Sasuke noticed Naruto accelerating his speed of course, and sped up as well. _

_But he soon realized that his fatigue began to catch up to him again and so he had to slow down willy-nilly. Naruto didn´t notice that Sasuke was getting slower and slower by the minute. He even increased his speed even more. He was almost at the Riverside, with Sasuke still hot on his heels. _

_He was so close to the river now, that it would be a good idea for him to slow down a little. But before he could do just that he tripped with his front foot over a stone. He did several somersaults, and landed with a loud splashing sound into the water. When he emerged and escaped to the shore, he heard a noise, that he didn´t like at all. "Stop it! This is not funny!" shouted an embarrassed Naruto to his friend._

_His friend however, continued to laugh and a soaked Naruto sat down and growled while he pouted. After a few minutes Sasuke had stopped laughing. But there was still a wide grin on his lips._

_"Tch, Teme!" Growled Naruto, but still went over to the black-blue colored to lie down beside him. Naruto was lying on his side, his back turned to Sasuke. After a while, Sasuke laid down too. The only difference was that Sasuke didn´t lay on his side like Naruto did, he lay on his belly._

_A few minutes passed and Naruto turned his whole body towards Sasuke, so that he was able to face him and looked at him inquiringly. Sasuke noticed this and turned his head to Naruto "What´s wrong?" He asked Naruto a little bit anxiously, "Huh? Oh, it´s nothing! Everything´s alright! Really! hehe!" Sasuke wasn´t convinced at all and showed that by raising a single eyebrow and looking intently at Naruto. _

_Naruto sighted and began to speak, "... Well ... I would like to ask you something ..." Sasuke looked at Naruto interested "And that would be?" Naruto paused for a few seconds and looked Sasuke straight into his eyes until he finally made an effort. "W-we're friends, right?" Sasuke nodded, "then I want you to promise me something!" _

_Naruto paused and Sasuke looked quizzically, waiting for Naruto to continue "I want you to promise me that you will always remain my friend, that you never betray me and that you never ever leave me all alone! Can you promise me that?" Naruto looked at Sasuke intently, waiting for a response or reaction of his dark friend. After a few minutes of silence, Sasuke put a smile on his lips. It was a warm and true smile, "you have my word Dobe! But I ask exactly the same of you! Deal?" Narutos eyes lit up at that and smiled "Deal!" _

_Naruto lay with his friend for several minutes on the grass near the river, that was until he suddenly heard a noise that had him _listening attentively _*"Naruto!" * Naruto was startled by that familiar sounding voice calling to him and jumped to his feet. He looked beside him, Sasuke was ... gone? *Where's Sasuke?* Naruto asked himself over and over again. He turned in a circle and searched the area for his lost friend. But ... Sasuke was nowhere in sight and not to be found. *Where are you? What about our promise?* He made a few more steps and stayed still __**"SASUKE!"**__ Naruto screamed heartbreakingly, he had no choice but to wait._

_There was no response, no answer, no call, no whimper or such. Not a single sound was heard. Just now noticed Naruto that the chirping of the birds and the rushing of the water had stopped._

_It was quiet. Naruto lowered his head and tears welled up in his eyes just to fell on the hot desert sand. _

_*Why Sasuke? Why did you leave me alone? Why have you broken our promise?*_

_*"Naruto"* there it was again. The voice he had heard just minutes ago. As the cries of the voice got louder and louder around Naruto, the world he was in, became more and more colorless and dreary. Everything faded. There was nothing left that could have given a clue about the place, what was here seconds ago. There was nothing alive, well, except Naruto of course. The yellow-colored threatened to sink slowly into the void, until he heard the voice again_**"NARUTO! WAKE UP! "**

Naruto opened his eyes suddenly and saw nothing but brown. He blinked and helped his eyes to adjust to his surroundings. Slowly, Naruto knew what the brown thing in front of him was or rather who it was. He looked into the eyes of his foster father and teacher Iruka Umino. Naruto looked up at Iruka. Iruka was sitting next to his head and looked down at him worriedly.

Since Naruto lay on his side and stretched all four of his legs out, he had to pull his legs in first, before he could straighten up. After a few minutes Naruto sat up and looked over and into his foster father's worried eyes, "Naruto, are you alright? You slept so restless! Did you have another nightmare?" he asked a little worried.

*A nightmare? I'm not sure if you can call it that. I had these dreams, since this damn thing happened!* Naruto thought.

"Naruto? Hey! What´s wrong?"

"Hm? Oh! No, it´s nothing, don´t worry about it" comforted Naruto Iruka, stood up, and stretched. He then went to Iruka and nudged him slightly in the side "Are you coming? I'm hungry! Can I have Ramen for breakfast?" asked Naruto hopefully. Iruka smiled and shook his head slightly, "Maybe Naruto. Let´s surprise you!"Naruto pulled a small pout," Oh man, Sensei! You know that I´m not good at patience"

Iruka laughed at that and said, "Then you need a lot more practice in that subject! But come now I wouldn´t want you to starve on me!" Iruka got up and walked with Naruto out of the small cave the two of them had occupied for two weeks now.

They had traveled a lot in the last years. They had seen and experienced many new things. Unfortunately, they found no suitable place to stay and live. So, there was no other choice for them but to travel even further. But two weeks ago, they had found a small village, which had gladly taken both of them in.

That Naruto and Iruka were very happy and relieved about that was no surprise. Although, it may be nice to travel this much, it was still a lot nicer to have a place where one could live and stay. As Naruto and Iruka came out of the cave, a warm and bright sunshine shone on Narutos coat. He shook himself lightly. Actually, he would like to lay on a big rock and take a long bathe in the sun.

But this had to wait for later, as he noticed how an unpleasant feeling of hunger spread inside of him. He looked over to Iruka, who looked at him knowingly and nodded. Naruto smiled and followed Iruka, who had now set in motion. The two 3.78 feet tall lions went along a narrow path and after some minutes, finally arrived at the village.

The village was not particularly large but that didn´t matter to them. It was just a little bit strange that not many male lions stayed in the village, except them.

Perhaps this was also the reason why the two had been accepted so easily.

They had heard that in the world, the number of females in each village was decreasing, since the new tribe had appeared. The leader of said tribe had - for better or worse - the view that he could do anything he pleases. He did just that by picking the most beautiful and fertile females from other tribes.

As Naruto and Iruka had come into the village, they learned that the inhabitants tried to hide from and escape the leader. So they had built this village a year ago, of which not many knew that it even existed.

So were lions and more important, lionesses protected against the leader.

What Naruto liked even less than that the leader seemed to be utterly ruthless, was that this leader named his tribe after Narutos old one - Konohagakure. *How dare he! Dragging the name of my tribe into the dirt?* Naruto thought bitterly. Konoha had been a peaceful and fair village. And after all that had happened to him and Iruka, he wanted to keep that name clean and in good memories. Now he could kiss that wish goodbye! After all, the name he once wanted to cherish, was now putting the world in fear and terror.

Naruto sighed. Yes, much had happened in recent years. He had grown up by hard and long training and turned from a naive young cub to a proud and skilled fighter. He was even something very special because of that special blood flowing in his veins - the blood of the Kyuubi clan. Many still thought that this clan was totally wiped out.

He and his parents had been the last of his kind. However, he couldn´t remember them, they both died when he was still a cub. There was war between the Kyuubi-clan and the other clans. Even though the Kyuubi-clan was one of the strongest of all clans, it hadn´t helped them at all, when all the other clans allied against them.

The hostile clans were afraid that the power and strength of the Kyuubi-clan would go to the clans head and that it decided to attack the other, unprepared clans without warning. Of course, the other clans would do everything to prevent that, even though they hadn´t had to fear anything at all from the Kyuubi-clan.

The war lasted for 6 years. Naruto was born in the 5th Year of war.

When Naruto was 3 months old, it finally happened. The enemies invaded his home village, tore down houses and burned them down shortly after. They killed everything, whether it constituted a threat or not. Narutos mother, Kushina, was terribly worried about her cub's wellbeing. Her mate Minato, the new and current leader of the Kyuubi-clan fought inside the village, alongside other male lions and tried to chase out the enemies.

Kushina looked hurriedly around the room and discovered a small wooden chest. She took Naruto, who was still sleeping peacefully in his sleeping-place by the scruff of his neck and laid him inside the chest. Naruto woke up during that and looked at his mother with wide, curious blue eyes.

"Shh ... Everything is going to be alright! Don´t be afraid, OK Naru-chan?"

Naruto cocked his head to the side and put his ears forward, as if he was trying to understand his mother better and faster. Kushina however, with a heavy heart tried not to cry in front of her little Naruto, because of the possibility of never seeing him, her only cub, ever again.

She put a few pillows into the chest so that Naruto could sit or lay down on them later on and looked long into his eyes.

"So my little sunshine, it´s time to sleep now, hm?" Kushina smiled and snuggled up to Naruto. He liked that immensely and began to purr loudly immediately.

Kushina was unable to hold back her tears by the show of her cub's affection towards her. But she had to pull herself together and stop crying for her beloved baby. She sang a lullaby and after a few minutes Naruto was sound asleep.

"I'm sorry that I had to use a jutsu on you Naruto. But it´s the only thing I could do, it´s for the best! Please, forgive me!" many tears rolled down freely over her face.

Suddenly she heard something outside. There were screams and sadistic laughter. Her fur stood on end and her ears twitched wildly from one side to another in order to hear the happenings outside better. She realized that the enemies were closer than she had hoped and expected. She ran out of her house and toward the enemies, in order to lure them away from the village and more importantly, away from her cub.

As minutes passed, an anguished and dying scream could clearly be heard. The scream was drowned out by loud and mean laugher. "So, that was the last one! Come on guys, let´s celebrate our victory", they left their enemies lying dead and/or dying on the floor as they headed home.

Some of them purposely stood on the dead bodies that lay on the ground "Hurry up!" said the leader "I want to go home to my mate and kits" with these words they disappeared and left all members of the Kyuubi- Clan dead in their own village. Well, actually they didn´t. They had overlooked a small cub sleeping peacefully in its chest.

He didn´t remember all this. But what he could remember was that he woke up on that day, lying in a warm and comfy bed and saw an unknown person in front of him. That person was none other than his mentor and teacher Iruka Umino. Iruka had brought him to Konoha, where he met new friends

- including his *best*friend Sasuke Uchiha – and learned how to fight and discovered his passion for Ramen. One could say that he was really happy in that village.

However, he still remembered the day when everything changed to the worst like it was just yesterday. Naruto shook his head wildly he didn´t want to remember that day and this incident. The event had caused too much pain and grief, for Naruto and Iruka, that Naruto wondered why it hadn´t torn him apart mentally.

He instantly snapped out of it, when he felt a slight nudge "Naruto, we have arrived!" Naruto fixed his eyes on the house before him. **Ramen World**. Narutos eyes began to shine, "Iruka you're the best! Let's go in! Please, please!"Narutos tail swung from side to side, while he licked his hungry lips. Iruka watched him amused and said "Come on then".

As the two went into the house they saw a lot of small tables all over the room. There were soft looking pillows lying on the floor. One big pillow for every side of the square-shaped tables. Naruto and Iruka sat down at one of those tables and waited. The restaurant was well attended and liked as one could see by the looks of other lions sitting and eating their ordered food.

When Naruto turned his attention towards the kitchen, a man with a tail and ears made his way over to them. The man worked here apparently since he was wearing a uniform that held the logo of the restaurant on it. The man stood next to Naruto and asked for their orders.

After both had ordered (Iruka had gone for a pork ramen and Naruto a double portion of miso ramen) and the man went back into the kitchen, Naruto turned his head quickly to Iruka "Why did that person look so strange, Iruka-Sensei? What´s the deal with his appearance?" Naruto wanted to know immediately. "I'll tell you once you´re old enough to know" answered Iruka, smiling. Naruto laid back his ears and put his head onto the table "You always say this! Every single time I ask you!"

Naruto whispered. A small pout was clearly visible on his face.

As the waiter finally came back with their orders Naruto removed his head from the top of the table, so that the man could put the two bowls down in front of them. As soon as the food was in Narutos reach, he greedily began eating and swallowing it down hastily.

Half an hour and many Ramen bowls later, Naruto and Iruka left the restaurant. Well sated of course. Naruto licked his lips several times, till he couldn´t taste his favorite flavor –Ramen – upon his lips anymore. "How would you like a small bath Naruto?" Iruka looked inquiringly at Naruto, pricking his ears up in the process. "A bath?" Narutos responded and his ears twitched at the thought, "Yeah OK, we might as well! I was in need of a little relaxation anyway", Naruto grinned.

Iruka nodded joyfully as both made their way to the hot springs.

They had to walk for almost 45 minutes until they reached the hot springs. It had taken both of them this long to arrive, because the springs were located on top of a hill and some distance away from the village.

Naruto immediately jumped into the hot water and made himself comfortable. Iruka shook his head and got into the hot spring as well. Both were seated on one of the many stones that were slightly below the water surface. So they could lie down and enjoy the warm water without having to fear to drown.

Both lions lay neck-deep. Both sighed comfortably and enjoyed the warm water.

After about an hour they were already on their way home. The two of them walked with a relaxed and comfortable atmosphere. That was until something struck Naruto, "Iruka ... Do you smell that?"

Asked Naruto, his ears flat against his Head and his nose sniffing the air. Iruka put his nose in the air also and began to smell the air and listened with his ears erected. "Yes, I think I do! I hear something as well! Let´s get back quickly and figure out what´s going on!"

Naruto nodded and both of them ran back to the village.

But when they arrived at the village, they couldn´t believe their eyes. The village was completely destroyed and the inhabitants were nowhere to be seen. They went farther into the village. The further they went the more shocked they became. The village lay in ruins! Houses had collapsed; the ground was torn up, scratched and filled with holes. One could smell dust in the air and the village seemed abandoned.

Naruto gulped. All of this seemed unpleasant familiar. The same had happened to Konohagakure when ... Naruto shook his head wildly *I can´t think about that now! I need to help these people! There still might be some people left after the attack and are now seriously injured or worse* thought Naruto as he continued to walk into the village while following Iruka. Iruka stopped suddenly.

"I think I've found something!" Iruka followed the smelled scent, while Naruto continued to follow him. The brown-colored lion stopped abruptly and gazed spellbound at the ground before him. Naruto stood beside him, frozen. There, on the floor lay the waiter from before, only that this time he was in his lion form.

The two forms did indeed look totally different, but the smell was clearly the same.

*Poor guy* Naruto thought but had to pay attention to something else abruptly, "h-hel ...lp..." Naruto stood still, listened and turned to Iruka "I think I've heard something" said Naruto excitedly to Iruka "Where did that noise come from?" Iruka wanted to know, "from over there "Naruto jerked his head and his right paw in the direction of a collapsed house on the other side of the street. They looked at another briefly and nodded, then dashed to the collapsed house "Hello? Is anybody there?" Naruto shouted, "hello? ... pl-plea …. please … h-hel … p.. me"

Naruto and Iruka listened as much as possible. "This sounds like the village chief", stated Iruka. "You're right! We need to get him out of there! But how do we do that?", "Let´s try to move those wooden boards first", Iruka suggested. "Good idea!" Naruto agreed and began at once to move the boards out of the way. Iruka helped him immediately when he noticed that Naruto had already set in motion.

It was not easy to move those boards at all with their paws, but they still managed it somehow and had the white leader soon rescued. He coughed and breathed hard, "*cough*Thank you very much ... my friends!" Naruto looked down to the leader, "you´re welcome! You provided us shelter after all!" Naruto said and lowered his head slightly so that he could understand the leader better.

He had indeed been saved but it did not look like he'd make it, he was old and injured, coughing and breathing harder and harder by each passing minute. Naruto and Iruka looked at the old with sympathy and sadness. "Naruto is right, sir! But what happened? Who did such a horrible thing?"

"Oh! That was *cough* my pleasure", the old smiled a tired smile. "What happened? *Cough* well, the troops from Konoha came *cough * and took all females with them ... while *cough* they devastated ... our home! *Cough*cough*cough*".

The chief had to interrupt himself as he had a violent coughing-fit "Are you Ok sir?" Iruka asked worriedly. "Yes, everything is fine. Where was I? Oh yes *cough* the few males of the village tried to stop the troops... but … they stood no change, they were outnumbered and all died trying to save the females and the village. All of them were slaughtered!" Naruto and Iruka looked at him, horror shining in their eyes,

"I would *cough*cough* like to ask you*cough*cough*something, a favor actually*cough*"

The voice of the old got even more quiet and weak."Please ask, Sir," said Iruka with a heavy heart, while Naruto had to hold back his tears. It was not nice watching someone die.

Especially if that someone was related to you or you knew him/her well and long. Or if it´s somebody that was as nice and kind as Nabuku (2), the village chief. "Please save *cough* the females! *Cough*cough * and bring ... that ruthless leader to his senses. "W-what? How are we supposed to mange that?" Iruka asked. "*cough*do not worry! ... You´ll manage... You two are special! *Cough* Iruka, you and your empathic nature ... and still strong force and you Naruto, with your gift, to never give up and your valuable and strong pedigree" Iruka and Naruto looked at the old lion with wide eyes.

Each had a different reason. While Iruka asked himself how the old could know this –about himself and Naruto - only he and a few others knew or rather had known about Narutos parentage, and of course, about Irukas own character.

Naruto looked at him shocked and surprised, because he did not know that in his blood flowed the heritage of the Kyuubi Clan. He only knew that he could do some things that others couldn´t! No matter how much they tried. "Please ...grant a ...*Cough* dying old lion, his last wish ... *cough*!"

Iruka looked shamefully to the ground, "I don´t think if we ..."

"We will help you grandpa! You have my word!"Naruto said confidently, "wa-what? But Naruto-"  
tried Iruka to say. "No Iruka! This bastard is already too much like a bastard for my taste! It´s time that he learns that he can´t treat others like that! He deserves to be kicked where it hurts most!"

Iruka looked shocked at Naruto. Where did his confidence suddenly come from? He could see a fire-like gleam in Narutos eyes. Just like back then, before that thing with Konoha and Sasuke had happened. Iruka smiled. Perhaps, they should really try? The only thing that was worse than death was, to live in a world with a ruthless leader like the one of Konoha. "You have my word Grandpa! I will free the females, and bring this idiot to his senses! Come what may!" Iruka nodded to show that he would lend a hand. "I wish you good luck *cough*!" Brought the leader out "cross your fingers for us in heaven, ok?" Naruto couldn´t stop his tears from rolling down his cheeks any longer as he asked that.

I´m going to do ... that! *Cough*cough* thank you ... for ... every ….th. .ing" whispered the old lion before he finally went quiet and died.

Naruto and Iruka remained at the same spot for a few minutes. Big and dark clouds hovered over the ground, which poured out their contents - a few minutes later - onto the ground.

It was raining. Naruto shuddered as rain drops landed on his fur and began to make it wet. He looked over to Iruka, who didn´t look like he felt any more comfortable in the rain, than he did. Naruto poked Iruka, so that he would look at him.

Naruto looked in the direction of the village elder. Even without words, Iruka knew what Naruto wanted to say and do. The village elder and the others that had died trying to save their village earned it. They earned to be buried with honor. The people had been so immensely friendly to the two of them.

They had been welcomed with open arms. Naruto and Iruka had felt very comfortable in the village too, although they had arrived not many weeks ago. The two then decided to stay another day and bury the dead and pray for them.

As the rain subsided after a few hours, the two of them set to work. They dug deep holes with their sharp claws - one hole for each lion. When they were finished they prayed for everyone. There weren´t many dead to bury, as the village consisted mainly of lionesses.

What Naruto immediately reminded of something *you bastard. You will be sorry. Just you wait! Soon your life won´t be a bed of roses any longer!* Naruto thought angrily, turned around and left

- With Iruka hot on his heels - the village which had welcomed them so warmly.

When the two had walked a few meters away, Naruto looked back to the village for the last time. *I get you! Just wait! I promised this and I´ve never ever broken even a single one of my promises! So prepare yourself, I´ll get you!* with this thought Naruto turned around and walked away from the destroyed village, closely followed by a silent Iruka.

_To be continued_

So, this is the overwritten first chapter! I hope you liked it and it´s better to understand now!^^

Your Soraki


	2. Still a long way to go?

**Lion Hearts**

**Warning:** Sasunaru, Kakairu which is shonen-ai/yaoi, lime no lemons, Sakura and Karin bashing (If you like those two then please leave immediately!) bad language. M-preg eventually or at least mentioned!

_Attention:_ There could be spoiler in it, about the past of the Uchiha-clan and such!

It also is a little bit different from the original Manga like you have already seen in the first chapter!

**Disclaimer:** Naruto isn´t mine! Too bad ... t.t

"talking"

*thinking*

**Chapter 2 now overwritten!**

**Chapter 2  
**

**Still a long way to go?**

_I´ll get you! Just wait! I promised this and I´ve never ever broken a single one of my promises! So just wait, I´m coming for you!*_

Naruto and Iruka had been traveling for two days now. Their goal the east, always in front of their eyes. Due to the rumors they had heard in the devastated village, they somewhat knew which way they had to follow. They acted on the information as accurately as possible until Naruto came to a halt. "Which way should we go now, Iruka?" asked Naruto uncertain "If only I knew" Iruka sighed, looking between one junction and another.

They had arrived at a fork, and as said before, they knew which way they had to go … well actually they only knew that they had to travel east, that was it! "And what do we do now?" Naruto asked slightly confused and waited with erected ears for a response from the elder

"Well, I guess our information is no longer sufficient. We should go into a village and get more information from there" Iruka suggested. "Good idea" Naruto beamed at that and started to sniff the air and the ground to get a trace of a nearby village. Even thought they had stayed in villages the past two days, they only did so to increase their supplies, they moved on immediately afterwards. After a few minutes, Naruto had found a trace and swung his tail happily from one side to the other and put his ears up

"Iruka, I think I found something!" blurted Naruto out; Iruka looked over to him "Good job Naruto! Can you also tell how far away it is from our position?" asked Iruka, who had detected the smell not as fast as Naruto had. Naruto had, because of his ancestry and his experiences as a child, better senses than most his age.

Naruto cocked his head to the side but then shifted his attention back to the smell. "Hmm ... I would say three to four hours ... Yep, we're three to four hours away from a village"

Guessed Naruto and turned back to Iruka, who nodded "Okay then, let's go! Just follow your nose!" No sooner said than done! As they walked, they realized that the desert disappeared more and more (1) and that more and more trees and shrubs showed up at their sides

*Wow, it´s really nice here! I could imagine to settle down here!* Thought Naruto as he looked around in amazement. Everything was wrapped in fresh and rich green. There was even grass. Plenty of grass, Naruto had never seen so much grass before in his live. Sure, there had been grass in Konoha, but not as much as it was here the case.

The yellow-colored looked around further and discovered a variety of colorful flowers that were all over the ground *I wonder what they smell like! There aren´t many flowers that bloom in deserts*

"Naruto" as he heard his name being called, he came out of his admiration for the whole green, to see the caller. Only to find out, that his caller was no longer beside him.

Naruto tilted his head, turned and pointed up his ears, until he found his caller a few feet ahead and waiting. "Oops" a grin appeared on Narutos face as he ran towards Iruka "Sorry Iruka" he apologized "It´s all right. But come now, we need to go!"Iruka said to him and began to move again. Naruto walked next to him and followed.

After several minutes of silence, Naruto raised his voice again "Tell me Iruka" Iruka shivered and laid back his ears, he knew at once what Naruto wanted to ask him. "Don´t you think I'm old enough already to learn what the deal with these half-lions and half-humans is?" Iruka shook his head and sighed, "Naruto how often must I tell you, that I´ll explain it to you when the time´s right?"

Iruka growled slightly annoyed at Naruto and his never ending questions. It was unnerving him. He was very patient but even his patience had its limits. Who wouldn´t react the same way as him, if Naruto asked the same question over and over again, for half a year. But Naruto didn´t even stop there, it looked like he had the opinion that he had to get on Irukas nerves with this question every. single. day.

Iruka sighed again "Come on Iruka-sensei, please!" Naruto begged and a vein throbbed dangerously on Irukas forehead."No Naruto! As I was your age, I also just learned it as it was too late already!"Iruka growled lowly "Wouldn´t it have been better, if you'd known that before, and could have prepared yourself?"Asked Naruto "Well ... if I think about it, it would have saved me from some embarrassing incidences ... wait"

Iruka paused and his eyes widened. Naruto grinned and his eyes sparkled with clear victory. Iruka growled "You tricked me!" His face darkened slightly as he said that, "Oh come on Iruka! You said, when one hast to get his information, anything goes, "Narutos grin got even wider, so that his sharp and pointed teeth flashed "That´s what I said, but", "but nothing Iruka-sensei! And a while ago, if I remember correctly, you said that if I manage to trick you, I will get a reward! And you can imagine what I would like to get as a reward! Can´t you, Sensei?" Naruto grinned satisfied.

"Huh ... Well, I have no other choice then! Even if I said no, you would still continue to annoy me with it, wouldn´t you?" Naruto just nodded, "fine, but you´ll have to wait until we arrive at a city or village, OK?", "but why Iruka? Can´t you explain it to me now?" Naruto asked sounding confused.

"Yes I could, but that's not the issue here. This is not a topic that should be discussed on a street and out in the open." Naruto looked slightly acidic. Now he had to wait, till they arrived at the next village. But Naruto nodded anyway, what else could he do? "If Iruka thinks it would not be a good idea to discuss this outside, then it has to be the truth" Naruto said to himself, as the two continued on their way to the village.

Just when the two were walking for a few minutes, they suddenly heard a fearful scream.  
"How dare you, you piece of shit," screamed a brown-black lion "Pl-please forgive, I just wanted to-" pleaded an old beige lion "It doesn´t matter what you want" growled a light brown lion.

"I think he deserves a little beating, don´t you agree?" a dark brown lion said, grinning. Naruto narrowed his eyes, laid back his ears and arched his back to look more dangerous. Iruka stood next to him but didn´t really know what he, or rather they, should do. He wanted to avoid problems at all cost ... but he couldn´t act like nothing was wrong and just get on his merry way ... right?

The decision was taken from him, as Naruto charged at the tree lions, hissing and roaring. "NARUTO!" Iruka shouted after him but he soon noticed that it was hopeless. As Iruka noticed that Naruto had no intention to stop, he rushed into the fight as well.

****

The four were surprised when they heard a loud and menacing roar. Just a few seconds later, two lions charged at them. While the beige one hid in a thicket, the three brown colored lions lined up next to each other. "Heh, that'll be fun!" one said "Oh yes! I can already feel the adrenaline running through my veins!" laughed the dark brown "Hmh, it´s just too bad, that we have to kill them! We could have had a lot of fun with them for sure, if you know what I mean!" Said the last one and licked his lips.

"Hey, you're right Kura! Those two are submissives (2)! But enough talk! Let´s fight! Maybe we will be lucky and they are robust enough and won´t be killed immediately" said the leader of the three with a strange twinkle in his eyes "The old will have to wait. We can take care of him afterwards, after we´re done with those two! So go", then they attacked.

Naruto saw the three approaching and couldn´t suppress a joyous grin. His last opponent had been some time ago. He was finally able to let off steam. The three hostile lions were indeed larger than he was (120 cm/47.24 inches) but that´s not saying much, after all, he and Iruka were more agile. When the brown-black-colored tried to strike Naruto with his paw, he missed Naruto by a few centimeters as Naruto dodged the attack and jumped on the back of his attacker.

He clung to his attackers back with his sharp claws and bit down on his shoulder. The bitten screamed and tried – with the help of his claws and teeth – to get Naruto off of him. In which he did not succeed. Only when he threw himself on the floor, he could get Naruto to loosen his hold and get him off.

As Naruto hit the ground, he felt slightly dizzy. This saw the lion and attacked him again, despite his sore shoulder. And Naruto tried – despite his blurry vision - to catch every movement of the lion and to foresee his next attack. This worked well, until he interpreted one movement incorrectly and therefore opened his cover. The brown-black lion had just been waiting for this, of course, and struck Naruto vigorously with his paw, so that Naruto was thrown to the side. The brown-black-colored walked over to him, towered over him and bent down, so that he could whisper into Narutos ear, "too bad, we could have had a lot of fun with each other". While he rose, he looked down smugly. With an arrogant smile on his lips, he lifted his paw,

His eyes became ice cold as he closed in for the kill. But before he could strike, Naruto turned on his back, so that they were abdomen to abdomen. Naruto just grinned at him insolently and rammed his razor-sharp claws into his chest and clawed.

He let out an anguished scream as Naruto bit him with his sharp teeth into his throat. Naruto pushed him away violently and the attacked only stalled a few meters away from Naruto on the ground and remained motionless.

Naruto sat up slowly. But never let the couching lion out of his sight. He noticed too late that another lion was sneaking up on him from behind. When Naruto turned around to face his attacker, it was already too late. He had no chance to dodge the attack and could only watch petrified as the other lion charged at him with extended claws. The next thing he knew was, that the attacker was on the ground and that another brown lion was standing next to him.

"Th-thank you Iruka!" Naruto thanked feeling relieved "Your Welcome Naruto! But you have to be more careful next time! And you should quit your playing around! You've seen what can happen, right?" Iruka scolded, sternly. "Y-yes" Naruto said guiltily and looked around the battle field. All three enemies were injured, but all could still move. (Naruto and Iruka didn´t want to kill them!)

Well, almost. The lion that had fought against Naruto and got to feel his claws, still laid motionless on the ground as the other two limped over to him. They arrived by their leader and hoisted him on their backs. They didn´t let Naruto and Iruka out of their sight. When they were set and ready to go, the dark brown began to speak,

"don´t think you´ll get away with this! We will tell our leader about you two! And then you two will be in serious trouble! HAHA!"He was laughing like a maniac at the end of his statement. "Oh really? Why should we be afraid of him, huh?"

Naruto asked, snarling, with laid back ears and weight on his front paws. "Just so you know, you two are standing right on the border of Konoha! Just a few more steps and you are in the territory of our leader! I can´t wait to witness your trial and punishment! Hahahahahaha"

After he said that, he and his allies vanished without a trace. Naruto and Iruka looked around, sniffed and pricked up their ears for sounds of the three and listened, but they couldn´t locate them. Iruka let out a sigh of relief whilst Naruto smiled a satisfied smile *so we are in the territory of that bastard huh? This is starting to get interesting!*

****

Both froze and listened closely once again when they heard and saw a rustling bush. Iruka and Naruto looked at each other and then back to the bush. Which began to rustle even more until something emerged from it.

"Wow! That was really marvelous! No one has dared to oppose those scoundrels till now!" said the beige lion from earlier. Naruto was shocked, he could do nothing but look as the old lion moved closer towards them *Isn´t that the one who got surrounded and attacked by those other three lions earlier?* Wondered Naruto "Oh and thank you very much for your help! Without you both, who knows what they would have done to me",

said the old with a smile *Ah, he is it after all!*. "Why were those three even attacking you?" Iruka asked, "Oh, They came to our village three months ago and took all the lionesses away. Only my little granddaughter Sala was spared. But this time, they also wanted to take her with them, and when I asked them to leave her with me and defended myself against them, they only said that they couldn´t and wouldn´t do that and laughed at me. And as I still didn´t change my mind, they began to become more and more aggressive and I think you know the rest of the story, right?" He answered sadly, "and where is Sala now?"

Naruto pressed on. The old man looked from one to the other and lowered his head "They have taken her! Just like that! As I was busy begging the three lions not to take her away from me, the remaining soldiers (lions) sneaked into my house and kidnapped her! But I didn´t come to know it until it was already too late! This brown-black one, who you fought against earlier",

he looked at Naruto, "laughed at me as he told me, how stupid it was of me to let my guard down and how easy it was for them to kidnap her. His lot/men only grinned nastily at my shocked face! They are a bunch of sadistic bastards!" Naruto glanced at the old

"What about the villagers? Haven´t they helped you at all?" Naruto asked stunned "No, no of course not, they had too afraid! This wasn´t even their first visit to the village", he said, looking down and seemed to think about something. Iruka and Naruto looked alternately to each other and then back to the old

"I´ve got an idea! As a sign of my gratitude I would like to invite you two into my home! It´s not even far away from here", he said. "That´s really kind of you! We would like to come mister ..." Iruka was trying to say, until he noticed that the other had never mentioned his name "Just call me Akio!", "Oh ok! My name is Umino Iruka, and he is-","Naruto, Uzumaki Naruto" interrupted Naruto.

Akio laughed heartily. "About your invitation mister Akio" Iruka began again, "Yes? And I would say that we´re already on the first name term with each other, don´t you agree?" Said Akio, "we´d really like to accept but we urgently need information about the leader of Konoha and Konoha itself! And since your village is scared of him ... well,"

Akio looked puzzled "You want information about Konoha?"

Naruto and Iruka nodded, "hm, but may I ask you why?" Akio wanted to know, "because this bastard deserves a kick in the ass!" Naruto growled angrily.

"Naruto!" while Akio laughed, Iruka scolded Naruto. "Well, I could share some information about Konoha with you two. Even thought my village is afraid of it, there´s still a lot of talk about it. Perhaps there is even more talk than in any other village?" He paused for a moment. But soon started to talk again: "So? How about it?" Akio looked at them expectantly. Naruto and Iruka looked into each other's eyes and when they had formed a silent agreement, they turned to Akio and nodded. "Let´s go then!"

Akio declared and so the three of them set off.

_To be continued_

(1) Well, it´s the world of Naruto right? In my Story there are lions living in (almost) deserts, forests, snow landscapes, etc.

(2) There are three types of lions which are integrated in 3 categories.  
Firstly, the "normal" male lion (dominant/s).  
Then females,  
and then the "other" male lions (submissive/s). They can get pregnant but have to get/be prepared by absolving special tasks.

So that was the overwritten chapter two! I hope you liked ti!^^

Till next time  
your Soraki


	3. You never stop learning!

**Lion Hearts**

Warning: Sasunaru, Kakairu, well you know, some bashing much later on

**Disclaimer:** Just like I said before, Naruto isn´t mine

**Other:** You´ll learn about the human-animal form in this chapter, that was mentioned in earlier

Chapters ... so, have fun while reading^^

**Chapter 3**

**You never stop learning! Or rather, Naruto gets the speech **

Naruto and Iruka followed the old man into his village and tried to store all the new smells and other interesting things in their memory. If one has the opportunity to travel through different villages and countries, then you should make the most of it!

The three had already passed a few small woods, as Naruto noticed a very familiar but still very unpleasant feeling in the pit of his stomach, "Dammit! I´m hungry and I need Ramen! When the hell will we arrive? I'm starving!" Just after Naruto had said that, Iruka would have loved to face-palm. But then again, he doesn't have hands, so all he could do was shaking his head slightly and sighing in disbelief. "Do not worry Naruto we're almost there", Akio assured amused and smiled, "Oh, that's good to know! Are there by any chance Ramen stands somewhere in your village, old man?" Wanted Naruto to know immediately.

"Naruto! Don´t be so rude! There are more important things than your Ramen!" Scolded Iruka Naruto and swung his paw after Naruto, while his ears were laid flat against his head and snarled to show his sharp teeth to Naruto in warning. Naruto, who once again didn´t expect Irukas reaction, was very surprised as he felt the paw collide with the back of his head. It wasn´t a hard blow, but if Iruka had wanted to hurt Naruto, then he would have been in real pain. Even so, Narutos encounter with Irukas paw wasn't quite painless, which Naruto found out quickly enough. He was feeling rather dizzy at the moment and had to fight the urge that wanted him to crash into the ground beneath his feet. To get the dizziness out of his system he shook his head a bit.

Akio, who witnessed the whole exchange, turned quickly towards Naruto and asked anxiously, "is everything OK with you Naruto", as Narutos dizziness faded he grinned broadly at Akio, "don´t worry. I just forgot how quickly and easily Iruka-sensei can lose his temper!" Akio looked slightly confused as he gazed at Naruto then at Iruka and then finally back at Naruto.  
It took a few seconds for Akio and Naruto to hear a small but audible growl. "Naruto!"

The addressed flinched slightly at Irukas tone and forced a reassuring smile onto his lips, "ehe, Sensei ... please, calm down ... you know that I was just kidding ... right?" Naruto flinched even more as Iruka began to growl dangerously at him. "I'm sorry, please forgive me! It slipped out! Sorry!"

If this had continued on for any longer, Naruto would have soon burst out into tears, but he would never admit that ... at least not of his own accord. Fortunately for Naruto, he was saved from a great embarrassment for himself.

"Ehem! Even if I don´t want to interfere with your "friendly" conversation, I have to! We have finally arrived!" Naruto and Iruka instantly lost all interest in their little dispute and devoted their entire attention to the little village in front of them.

The two had neither noticed that they continued on walking while they were fighting, (Well, that fight has been more on Irukas part anyway), nor that Akio accelerated his walking pace by the second and the two followed suit. But when the older lion said that they had arrived, the dispute was forgotten and Naruto noticed how his heart did a few joyful leaps. He knew that he soon was able to get something to eat – hopefully Ramen.

Akio, who now knew that he had the full attention of both lions, suggested the two to follow as he made a motion with his head to them. Iruka and Naruto followed him in silence and watched the village, or at least the part of it, they could see on their way.

This village was much smaller than the last one. However, there were plenty of shops in it, so that the villagers didn´t have to go to the dogs ... er lions. The buildings were four or five meters high (I hate measures!) and made out of wood. Out of thick and sturdy wood, if Naruto saw right from where he stood. They also had the shape of an igloo, but the entrance was not closely attached or close to the ground. At the entrance there was a perfectly ordinary hole, which extended to about one-third to one half of the building. This varied from building to building, but all had the small carpet in front of the entrance in common. It was probably to keep out the cold wind.

The three went along a narrow street and stopped after a few minutes in front of one of those wooden houses. "Huh? Why are we stopping?" Naruto wanted to know, "we're here. This is my home", answered the old lion.

"Come on in, don´t be shy. You have to be hungry, thirsty and exhausted after that fight with the other three lions!"A broad grin sneaked onto Narutos lips "Oh, don´t mention it! That fight was easy. A piece of Cake! Believe it!" Iruka could only shake his head at Narutos antics "Yeah, sure, that's exactly the reason why you were almost taken by surprise by one of your opponents, wasn´t it?" Iruka teased.

"Don´t say that Iruka-Sensei! I only wanted him to think that he had the upper hand! And to give him a small chance to have the feeling of being in control, while it lasts! Before I was finished with him, of course! I would´ve won easily! Really!" Naruto tried to convince the other "But of course, Naruto! I believe you", grinned Iruka while his tail swung back and forth contently. At the same time drooped Naruto his ears, lowered his head and began to sulk.

Iruka then turned to Akio, "I thank you for your offer and we´d like to make use of it, of course", Akio nodded as a sign that he understood and accepted. "But I have to ask one think! Say do you have Ramen?" Naruto asked hopefully. Iruka and Akio started laughing and Naruto could do nothing but place his head to the side, you could see question marks appearing and flying over his head, if one had enough imagination.

"Oookaay ... What the heck is so funny?" Naruto asked obviously confused, had he said something wrong? "It´s nothing, really!" Iruka assured him. But he didn´t believe Iruka at all. But he let the subject slide, as he noticed Akio, who cleared his throat and directed them with the help of his paw towards his house. Naruto immediately understood, went to the house and entered it with the other two.

As Naruto entered Akios home, he learned that the interior wasn´t exactly luxurious, but then again, Naruto had never expected something else. Even if it wasn´t luxurious, it still held a very pleasant atmosphere. Naruto looked around a little further; he could see that this house was divided into three rooms.

There were no walls that were completely drawn through. All walls stopped a few meters in front of the house interior outline, so that a small passage arose. In the room they were at, at the moment, was only a small kitchen. A low table with some pillows around it stood also in the room. The other two rooms, Naruto assumed, had to be a guest room and a bedroom.

"Your home is really comfy" complimented Iruka. But he soon realized that he became homesick because of his own village and mate, which and who he missed deeply. Iruka shook his head. He didn´t want to remember the terrible things that had happened in and to their village and certainly not how he had lost his first and only mate.

He had vowed to himself, to stop his mourning for his mate, because he knew that He certainly didn´t want Iruka to feel sad and dejected.

So he turned his whole attention back to Akio, who began to speak again, "I'm terribly sorry Naruto, but unfortunately we have no Ramen in our village ..." Iruka paused, and quickly turned to Naruto. Who had his eyes firmly fixed on the ground and began to tremble uncontrollably. The next moment he shot his head in the air and let out a very, very loud and very piercing scream. The whole village and even some of the surrounding villages could hear a distinct "Nooo!"

**In the evening**

*How can a whole village not have a single bowl of Ramen? OK, I can understand what he meant by "the village only provides the villagers with the most important things they need to survive!

... but ... no Ramen, never again? How is that even possible? I´m pretty sure that **I** could **not** survive in this village! Really now!* Naruto had already lain down to sleep in the guest room at Akios house. He had been so disappointed previously, about the fact that this freaking village had no freaking Ramen anywhere! He had been so mad, that he had eaten whatever it was that Akio had offered them. And he had had no freaking idea what the hell he had eaten there.

*Wait a minute! The old man had said what it was! It was something like ... uh ... what did he call it again? Ah now I know, he called it a moose! Whatever that is ... but I have to admit that it didn't taste that bad. But I would still choose Ramen over that moose-thing, anytime!*

At that thought, he sank into many fantasies about his favorite food. But his little trip to heaven was only short-lived, as he felt another presence enter the room. "Iruka? Is that you?" Naruto asked into the already dark room "Yes, it´s me. What is it?"

Iruka answered him and asked a question of his own, "oh it´s nothing, I just wanted to make sure that it's you" Naruto answered while a yawn sneaked out of him. "Well, then I think all of your questions are answered, right? Good night Naruto" bid the brown lion, "good night" bid the yellow one back. Naruto was about to make himself comfortable again, until he remembered something that made him wide awake in seconds.

He lifted his head and looked over where he thought Iruka rested. "Heeey, Iruka-Sensei?" Oh no, Iruka knew that tone all too well! He could clearly hear the grin in that short sentence. "If I think about it, I wouldn´t say, that **all** of my questions are answered, wouldn´t you agree? And on top of that, you promised to tell, on our way here, didn´t you?" Naruto asked teasingly but still held a serious tone to it. Iruka growled slightly embarrassed. He hated that stupid topic to the core! He had actually hoped that Naruto had forgotten about that little promise for a few days.

But then again, Naruto was Naruto, so what had he expected? Naruto and forgetting about that topic, that he annoyed Iruka with to no end? Heh, Yeah right!

"OK. You win. I know I promised. So listen well, I will explain it to you just this once! So, where should I start?" Iruka fell silent for a few minutes. When he was sure what he should say and how he should say it, he continued,

"Ok, this lion-people that we have seen in some cities, we have travelled trough are called humanoids" Naruto put his ears forward, so that he could understand Iruka better and remember all the important details. His eyes sparkled with interest as Iruka continued:"There are only two ways to become a humanoid. One would be with the help of hard training and when I say hard training, I mean hard training. The other way is, by getting a mate and mate with him or her."

Naruto swallowed while Iruka took a short break to consider his choice of words.

"But tell me Iruka? If I really wanted to become a humanoid, I could just train myself, and then needn´t to ... well, mate with another, right?" Naruto blushed slightly. How lucky he was, that the room was wrapped in darkness. Of course he knew what mating was, he even fantasized about it sometimes. (About and with who's a secret ^ ^)But it was still a touchy subject for him, because he had no experience in it, nor did he have or find someone interesting enough to get experience with.

"Yes, you could Naruto. But the outcome will be very different. If you train, you´ll have a time limit. But the maximum of that limit won´t be much longer than three hours. In which you will be able to stay in your humanoid form."

Iruka took a short pause and breathed, "while with getting a mate and mating, or how the older generation likes to call it:"The final stage of bonding", you´ll be able to hold your form for days. And if you manage to find your perfect match in a mate, you´ll be able stay in that form even longer!"

"And what does that form do for me exactly? I mean, you can live a good life as a lion, what do you need your humanoid form for?" Naruto asked slightly confused, "that may be true, but as a humanoid you can learn and do other techniques, which you would be unable to do as a lion! Surely you have heard about nin-, gen- and taijutsu back in school, right?" Naruto nodded.

"There! Those are techniques you can only use in your humanoid form. Which means, that you´ll be a lot more powerful in your humanoid form, than you are in your present. You´ll also maintain your beastly traits like smell, hearing, speed, strength and so on.

In addition, the body of the humanoid has a crucial role in the life of every submissive. But I think I´ll tell you about that another time or it´ll be too much for you to take in at a time, otherwise", Iruka closed his eyes and took a deep breath, to prepare himself for the thousand questions from Naruto.

A few moments passed, but Naruto didn´t make a sound at all. Even after a few minutes, nothing was heard from him. So Iruka had no other choice but to opened his eyes and turn to Naruto.

"Naruto? Are you alright?" A worried Iruka wanted to know. Naruto, who had been in his thoughts till now, asked "Can you turn yourself into a humanoid, too?" He knew that this was a very touchy subject for Iruka. After all, he had lost his mate and even if Naruto couldn't fully understand how the pain of losing one's mate felt like, he still had eyes and could therefore see what it had to be like. Iruka had badly suffered the last years and he still does. But nonetheless, Naruto wanted no, needed to know.

"Yes. I can turn into a humanoid. But that was years ago and I don´t really want to be able to do it anymore. I´m sorry Naruto but I´m tired and would like to sleep now!" answered Iruka in a quiet and sad voice.

Naruto lowered his ears and looked down, ashamed, "I'm sorry Iruka! I know how you feel about it and yet I-", "it´s okay Naruto, really" interrupted Iruka, "don´t worry about it. Well then good night", and with that, the conversation was finished, at least on Irukas behalf. But Naruto still couldn´t stop feeling guilty and with a, "good night Iruka" Naruto lay back down and tried to fall asleep.

However, he remained awake for a few more minutes and let the conversation repeat itself in his head, once again. But he couldn´t help himself and fell asleep shortly after.

SO that´s the new chapter! How was it?

I´m actually very proud of this translation, hihi^^

I hope I did a good job!^^

See you in the next chapter

Little dictionary to this story:

Mate: a person who is romantically involved with you. Every person has a perfect match (soul mate, but was too lazy to write it down in the chapter ... -.-*

Submissive: well, the submissive one in the relationship. He is also able to bear cubs.

Humanoid: a creature who´s part human and part animal. (no furry!) Are able to use jutsus, but maintain their beastly abilities like smell, taste, hearing, speed and so forth.


	4. We are getting ready

**Lion Hearts**

**Warning:** Sasunaru, Kakairu and m-preg and language

**Disclaimer:** Naruto is the property of Masashi Kishimoto and TV Tokyo. I don´t make profit and I'm not earning money with this story!

**Other: **the first appearance of the leader^^. I´ll be describing the surroundings of Konoha, when Naruto and Iruka have arrived there, ok? So then, have fun^^

"talking"  
*thinking*

_**Chapter 4**_

**we are getting ready!**

It was a hot and sunny day. All villagers of Konohagakure were engaged in their errands or tried to please their new leader. It truly was a beautiful and relaxing day ... well almost.

Four fully grown male lions sat in one of the largest caves of the village. If humans saw this room, they would probably compare it with a throne room or an audience chamber. But since there are no "real" humans in this world that comparison will probably never happen.

The largest of the four of them, sat on a pedestal, which was at the end of the room and occupied ¼ of it. On the left side of the pedestal, was a small stone staircase, which began on the ground, and ended at the surface of the pedestal. It was made, so that the ruler of Konoha could climb on his pedestal, proudly and comfortably.

In front of him sat three other lions. A dark brown, light brown and a brown-black lion. They all looked up at their leader and ruler with anxiety and nervousness shining clearly in their eyes.

"Submissives, eh? Hn, I didn´t know that there were still some left. This is good news, but what interests me even more at the moment, is why you all come back looking like you do? It wasn´t that hard of a mission, to get that last female, was it?"

The dark tail of the leader swung back and forth behind him. The other three swallowed. This was not a good sign at all. They knew their leader and recognized exactly when he was in a bad mood.

And no one wanted to be faced with his bad mood alone. Those moods could get very ugly and painful if one wasn´t careful. When he thought about what had happened to that last idiot that had dared to defy the orders of the leader, he became weak in the knees and threatened to shake and tremble with fear, just thinking about it.

Nobody wanted to be the target of their leader's bad mood or anger or even wanted to be near it. Even a wrong spoken word, could mean the end for the speaker. Especially if a particular topic was discussed, he quickly became aggressive and needed several hours to calm himself down. One would think that he would be over his past and loss by now. But the most were wrong about that. That was one of many reasons why no one tried to bring up that specific topic or tried to provoke him. That´s what everyone did, or rather, all but one at least. It looked as if his own mentor loved to tease and provoke him.

He was a bit of a strange lion, anyway. Who would - out of his own free will - wear a mask over his jaw all day long and appear to never take it off? Many also wondered what exactly he did to his hair for it to look so high and sloping. And then there was that special feature. And indeed it was, because the colors of his eyes were different. But one should not forget his silver-gray fur. And although he had an unusual hobby, (* cough *cough *) he did not even look too bad.

He was actually quite popular with the females, not quite as much as the leader, but he still had one impressive number of female admirers. Especially after the death of his mate, he was surrounded daily by females, and was literally begged to seek a new partner and to choose one out of them as his new mate. Mainly among those females, who asked him to get a new mate, a tough competition could be felt. But then, that´s to be expected.

The leader let out a deep and menacing growl, because after minutes, his question still wasn´t answered by them. The three winced and the black-brown shook as the leader was glaring at him, "if I am not mistaken, I asked you a question, didn´t I? So out with it!"

The called started to sweat (figuratively) as the eyes of the ruler, while he spoke in a deep and authoritative voice, narrowed. "W-well, leader-sama, I don´t exactly know how to explain ... uh ..." the brown-black tried to find the right words and not to get unnecessarily on the leaders nerves. Because that was the last thing he wanted.

"I cannot remember commanding you, to tell me a novel! So what´s so hard in telling me about it in a few words! Or do you want me to lend you a hand?" the tallest one of the four said with a menacing voice and bared his sharp claws to demonstrate.

The black-brown lion swallowed again and tears of despair and fear threatened to come to the surface. "Well, how about it?"Asked the lion on the podium with a smug tone.

"I-I'll talk!" He replied without thinking about his words.  
A nasty smirk flashed onto the leader's lips, "There we go!" He proclaimed as he watched the others closely. The recipient writhed under the gaze of the leader; "e-ehm, we´re looking like this because of the two submissives" said the black-brown meekly.

The leader stopped wagging his tail, cocked his ears and raised an eyebrow. "Because of the two submissives?" He asked with an incredulous voice. "Y-yes sire!" The lion began to tremble clearly now, as he confirmed his statement.

The second eyebrow joined the first, as the leader looked with astonished eyes at the leader of the mission and then at the other two, "two Submissives then!" broached the leader the subject again.

He got three clear nods as response. The leader shook his head as he eyed the three with a disdainful glance. "Two weak submissives managed not only to defend themselves against three adult dominantes*, but also to shellac them! Is that what you´re implying?"

Even if the leader´s voice was not loud, the three knew that they were in trouble. They knew that their leader was much more dangerous when he was speaking in a cold and deep voice than when he was speaking in a loud voice. The leader rarely got loud, because he hardly ever lost his temper.

What they were afraid of most, was what the tone of the leaders voice could mean for them. It was known throughout the village that when the leader was irritated or angry/aggressive, he got a sadistic streak. He was already dangerous when he was just in a bad mood. But once his sadistic streak awoke, it would often end in death or massacres. And all that just because he couldn´t let go of his past.

But even though the ruler was arrogant, conceited, sadistic and was or could be violent, the whole village still supported him, even respected him. The citizens of his village were healthy and well and were protected by him. Even if the kidnapping of the females was a bit exaggerated, he was, nevertheless, a very good ruler.

And although he could be violent, he often didn´t participate in it. He was more into the battle of words, which let his opponent know that he was not only superior in physical strength but also in mental strength.

But the one thing he didn´t tolerate at al was disobedience. Everyone that opposed him or didn´t obey his orders, was severely punished, which could variety from a fight, to exile, or even unto death. He wasn´t retained or picky at all if he had to.

"W-we are terribly sorry, leader-sama, b-but we can atone for our mistake!" The ruler only shook his head and a wicked grin crept onto his lips, "you are pathetic. Defeated by two submissives! I have never seen so much incompetence before! But tell me, how do you want to atone for it? I'm all ears!"

The three looked at each other confused. After several minutes the leader of the mission began to speak up again, "the two submissives are looking for you and want to fight against you, sire, and we thought-", "and you thought why not try it again? Maybe it will work out and you´ll defeat them this time?"

The three nodded hastily. A dark tail began to move restlessly again while black eyes moved to slits and began to sparkle dangerously, "oh really now? You truly are the most pathetic creatures I've ever seen! I will take care of those trouble-makers personally, don´t you worry! And what concerns the lot of you. Get out of my cave at once, and I would like to advise you, that none of you should let me catch sight of you for some time!" The small group trembled, "b-but leader- sama"

The leader laid his ears back and looked at them, scowling, while his tail banged hard on the ground behind him, "I said to get out, didn´t I?", "y-yes sire", answered the three meekly.

Before the lion on the podium knew it, the three ran out of his cave like scalded cats.  
The one left behind sighed, "submissives, hn? That could get interesting", he whispered to himself as a small sadistic smile crept upon his lips.

"Maa, maa, aren´t you in a good mood! Did you get out on the wrong side of the bed again?" asked a cheerful-sounding voice. The leader turned to the voice and shook his head, "what do you want?" The other lion looked at him with raised eyebrows before he took his seat on the floor "is this any way to greet his mentor? Come let´s try this again!"The dark-colored threw the silver-gray lion a dark look, got up and went down to him. He came to a halt in front of him and sat down as well.

"I ask you again, what are you doing here? I can´t remember calling you, Kakashi! "  
Kakashi grinned, which couldn´t be seen well because of his mask. "Well, I patrolled this corridor by chance as my ears perceived a very interesting conversation."

The leader looked at him blankly, "I didn´t know that eavesdropping is also one of your hobbies?"

He said sarcastically, the silver-gray just smiled at him, "you don´t know many of my hobbies," the blue-black colored leader looked disgusted, "I think I don´t even want to know more!" he said stonewalling Kakashi.

Kakashi's eyes formed two crescent moons which tips pointed downwards as he grinned with amusement, "but why am I here exactly? Well, I heard that you were talking about two submissives and I wanted to ask you if you think that those two submissives could be-"," Kakashi stop, you know as well as I do that the two are dead. So stop living in the past already!" ordered the darker one out of the two, while lying his ears back and baring his fangs.

"That´s rich, coming from you! You have exactly the same problem as me when it comes to coming to terms with the past! One only needs to mention your brother or him and you´ll get aggressive!"

"That's none of your business! So what? You have to understand that you won´t see your mate ever again and that he is dead! They are dead! So stop clinging to any glimmer of hope!" the leader growled out furiously and stormed out of the throne hall-like room.

Kakashi looked sad and desperate onto the ground. His heart pounded wildly inside his chest, as he didn´t want to acknowledge the death of his mate."I miss him so very much ... but what if he really is dead? Maybe he's right; if my mate was still alive I would have found him in the last one and a half years. Right ...? "

Tears welled up in his eyes as he slowly lost hope in the survival of his beloved mate. With bowed head and hanging posture he left the cave as well.

* * *

In a small, remote village, the sun had just risen. But the streets were already alive. Naruto turned around in his sleeping place and tried to ignore the noise coming from outside, which got more difficult by the minute. Ultimately, he gave up and opened his - still drowsy with sleep – eyes.

"Why the hell is it so loud out there? Sleeping in, my ass!"Naruto growled to himself and swung his tail from left to right.

"Hey Iruka!"

Silence.

Naruto pointed his ears and tried again,

"Iruuukaa"

Still silence.

Naruto turned his body away from the wall and looked into the room and towards Irukas roost. However, it was empty. No Iruka in it. Only after a few minutes Naruto realized what that meant and sprang up – tiredness forgotten.

"Iruka? Where are you?" Naruto shouted. When he still got no response, he walked out of the guest room and toward the exit, because Naruto hadn´t seen Iruka in the kitchen or living room either.

He reached the street and searched trough it with his eyes before he set in motion.

He went further into the village, looking for Iruka until he finally found him.  
"Oh, good morning, Naruto! Nice to know that you´re awake now."

Naruto blinked, "eh ... good morning and what do you mean by "now"? I was looking for you everywhere!"Naruto said irritated, "oh, I´m sorry. I wanted to collect information and replenish our supplies. I thought I'd better let you get some more sleep", assured Iruka.

Narutos eyes widened at that, "What? Are we going already?" Naruto asked and Iruka nodded," Yes it´s for the best. For us and for the village."  
Naruto looked at him confused and blinked, "huh? Why is that for the best?" Iruka sighed and sat down, "because we are submissives". Naruto blinked again and sat down too, "and what's wrong with that?"

"Basically, nothing. But we were seen by those lions from Konoha - if they were telling the truth and really belonged to Konoha. And since submissives are rare and are able to birth stronger offspring than females, the leader might want us as well!"

Naruto laid his ears back and growled, "That's disgusting! Are you saying that it could be that he wants to... with me? I won´t let him do anything strange to me!" He growled and extended his claws, ramming them into the ground at once.

"If he just looks at me funny ..." Naruto paused and let his anger flew through his body. He got so enraged that he didn´t even notice his fur standing on end. "When I am done with him, he won´t have to worry any longer about fathering offspring, because he´ll lack the ability to sire anything after I'm trough with him!"

Anger flowed through his body as adrenalin was pumped through his veins.

Iruka gulped and widened his eyes, his fur beginning to stick out as well. However, Irukas reaction had a completely different reason.

Iruka could almost feel the irritated and potent chakra emanating from Naruto. He had a bad intuition.

He had to do something.

Immediately.

Naruto would endanger the entire village if he didn´t calm down soon. It would be easy for the warring villages to feel his potent amount of raw chakra and locate it. Furthermore, Iruka had this awful feeling that Konohagakure wasn´t too far away anymore and would be able to notice Narutos chakra.

And when Konoha did that the whole village would be in danger, because it would, for better or worse, serve as a battlefield.

Iruka took a deep breath. He had to come up with an idea quickly, before Naruto was able to activate his heritage or it would get very uncomfor- ... damn too late!

Iruka tried to forcefully calm himself down. It wasn´t too late he realized. He saw that the yellow-colored lion had not yet activated his heritage fully.

By which he saw that? Well, he saw that in the truest sense of the word.

He growled deeply and threateningly to draw Narutos attention towards himself. Exactly as he expected of him, Naruto turned and looked back at him with a set two fierce and now blood-red eyes. Iruka growled again and walked with slow and steady steps towards Naruto.

As Iruka came closer, Naruto laid his ears back and growled in warning. It didn´t take long for Iruka to stand right next to Naruto. Naruto looked right into his eyes and growled even more. At exactly that moment the world around them seemed to stand perfectly still. The silence was almost oppressive.

The inhabitants of the village, which happened to be on the street, hold their breath and looked fixedly at the silent fight between the brown and the yellow lion, which they seemed to fight with just their eyes.

Iruka didn´t notice the many eyes that lay on himself and his foster son. His whole attention was devoted solely on Naruto.

Even if it didn´t look like Iruka knew what he had to do. He did know how stubborn, noisy and temperamental Naruto was and that he could get easily flared up. He had been like that even as he was just a child. And Iruka was already more than familiar with this situation, although this time it was another reason for Naruto to lose his temper.

As a child, Naruto had often lost his control over his heritage because of anger, sadness or outrage and Iruka having no other choice but to calm him down again.

The method with what Iruka had calmed down Naruto had not changed over the years. And it had always worked until now. Iruka hoped that it was the same this time. How much he wished that his mate was with him now. He had always been close to protect Iruka if necessary, when Naruto lost control over himself.

But since his mate was dead now, he had to calm the enraged Naruto down by himself, without the assistance from his beloved.

Iruka took few deep breathes. He could do this! For Narutos and the village´s sake! He couldn´t and mustn´t endanger the lives of these innocent people. Although he knew that it would be difficult, he would still try to calm down Naruto. Even without his mate and before other villages could detect the chakra.

Iruka still looked into Narutos eyes. However, his eyes narrowed to slits as he began to watch Naruto with anger and authority shining in his eyes. A few minutes passed and all could hear a deep menacing growl coming from Naruto.

Iruka didn't let himself be impressed by the growl; he even let out one of his own deep and intimidating growls. Now he waited, but still didn´t stop growling.

He waited for the sign that would show him that he either had the upper hand - what he hoped.

Or that he had lost the fight - which he didn't hope.

After a few minutes, which were filled with angry growls and eyes, he saw the sign for which he had been waiting for.

It was minimal and almost inconspicuous, but Iruka had seen it clearly. The look in Narutos eyes softened as he lowered his head just slightly. This was exactly the sign Iruka had been waiting for!

With one last growl he turned his head in the direction of Narutos left ear and bit down on it, hard. Although this method was used to teach offspring how they should behave, it still seemed to work just fine on Naruto, since he lowered his head even more while making wretched whimpers, and lay down on all fours, so that his belly touched the ground.

Iruka followed Narutos movement towards the floor, Narutos ear still wedged between his sharp fangs. Iruka let go off it after a while and whispered in the still with pain throbbing ear Narutos, "Naruto, calm down, damn it! Your fur begins to change its color!" Naruto looked at him blankly at first, but then it seemed to have clicked inside his brain, as he understood what Iruka was implying.

"What? But how? Why? When did I", before Naruto could continue to hem and haw, he was interrupted by Iruka, "Shh! That´s not important now! You can worry about that later, now change back!"

Naruto nodded, sat down and looked down at himself *shit! Iruka is right! I've already begun to change, my fur is already a bit red and my eyes should have exactly the same color if I am not mistaken! However, it seems that the transformation still isn´t complete yet, thank goodness!* He sighed relieved as he realized this and stared at his more normal but still a bit red-looking fur.

This transformation was completely normal for his clan, what Naruto didn´t know of course. Whenever he let loose on his inheritance, his fur would turn red. This began at the fur roots and ended at their tops.

In addition, his fur appeared to be unkempt with his transformation, but that was probably the fault of the wild mass of chakra, which flowed out of him and around him.

His eyes turned blood red while his teeth and claws got a lot sharper. On top of this, his offensive and defensive force increased a lot.

However, this form also had its disadvantages. For example, in this form he would use up his chakra a lot faster than usual. He also didn´t know what to do with this huge amount of chakra that was inside his body. So it's no surprise that he couldn´t keep most of it in his body and thus was able to flow out freely, as it was seen before.

Naruto closed his eyes and tried to relax. He had to concentrate on his chakra, so that it wasn´t able to flow out any longer. It took him a few minutes, but he soon became peaceful, which helped him a lot in his task.

With a relaxed sigh, he opened his eyes again and watched as the red color receded until it disappeared completely and his sun-like fur took its place.

Iruka heaved a sigh of relieve when he noticed, that Naruto had calmed down completely.

Only at his moment the two finally saw what a riot they had caused. Tense and unsettled eyes were on them.

The two blushed slightly as the eyes still hadn´t stopped staring at them, after a few minutes.

Naruto grinned sheepishly, hoping with a "don´t worry, everything is fine now, believe it!", to lessen the tension and to reassure the petrified villagers. What fortunately, was the case.

The attention of all was, for a few minutes still focused on the two, but after that time, the villagers set in motion again. Not even a sign of what had happened a few minutes prior was seen.

Naruto and Iruka breathed a sigh of relief when the road revived by itself.

Iruka nudged Naruto on the shoulder and requested to follow him. They hadn´t gone too far when they heard a whisper to their side, "Hey you two, follow me!"

Iruka and Naruto turned towards the voice right away and were barely able to see a lion that disappeared into a small and narrow side street. The two looked at each other, uncertain of what to do, before Naruto shrugged and followed the other lion into the narrow street. Iruka stood motionless in front of the narrow alley, but he too disappeared into the alley to follow the other two lions.

Naruto paused to wait for Iruka, who was by his side shortly. They nodded, and set in motion with pricked ears as they didn´t want to be attacked after all.

The alley was in the truest sense of the word small, as they had arrived at the end of the alley without needing much time.

They were now in front of a small, dilapidated wooden hut.

The end of the alley was wider at the end and appeared at the form of a circle.

The hut stood opposite of them, directly at the wall.

The two lions looked at each other briefly and then went over to the entrance door of the hut,

"Hello? Anybody in there? You wanted us to follow you, so we did and here we are now ... so what do you want?" Naruto wanted to know, while Iruka eyed the environment.

It didn´t take long and the door was opened and an old tousled sandy-colored lion appeared in the entrance. "Oh right, yes!" whispered the sandy-colored to them and sat down in the doorway, "I've heard you're looking for information on Konohagakure? Is that true?" The stranger asked in a friendly tone.

Naruto and Iruka nodded. Although Iruka somehow found this old lion very suspicious, he didn´t say anything about it. "Do you know something about Konoha?" asked Naruto back. "I guess so", replied the stranger. "Can you tell us?" Naruto asked again.

The old seemed to think about it for a while before he decided to answer, "Yes, I could tell you. But I'd like to know first, what two fine submissives like you two, would need this sort of information for? I imagine that it could get quite dangerous for you if you were to be discovered", he said. Naruto growled slightly annoyed, what no one seemed to take notice of.

"We would like to speak with the leader of Konoha" Iruka continued the conversation, thus answering the question of the other. The stranger only nodded, apparently pleased by the answer, while Naruto spoke up again, "Heh, we wouldn´t only like to talk to him. No, we would like him to wish that he would have never met us! He doesn't even appear to be **that** strong when his followers were so easy to defeat by us, believe it!" Iruka merely hissed a faintly "Naruto!", while the old nodded and seemed even more pleased than before. "Hmhm, so you're the ones that drove off the minions from Konoha?" Naruto nodded proudly while Iruka shook his head disbelievingly and bit back a growl, which he wanted to emit terribly.

"Hm, I guess you are worth it after all. I'll tell you the information you want to know" he said with a big grin. The two looked at him intently, "if you travel without taking breaks, you should arrive in Konohagakure around 1 ½ days. The best way to get there would be to go through the back exit of this village, then to turn right and then to always follow the path and your nose", he explained then paused to think,

"You can´t really miss it – at least if it´s true what I've heard. Oh before I forget, there´s a high wall built around Konoha to ward off enemies ... it may be difficult to get unseen into Konoha, because it is build on a rise in the ground and they are therefore able to watch their surroundings a lot better!" Naruto just nodded and tried to memorize the most important bits of the information as best as he could.

"That's all I know ... you have to find out about the rest yourself, unfortunately" he said sadly,

"No problem we can do that, right Iruka? Iruka? Is something wrong? ... Iruka! "

Iruka had been deep in thoughts until he heard his name being called and startled up, "Huh? Yes, sure! "

Iruka simply couldn´t get rid of the feeling, that something wasn´t right about that old lion. He hadn´t even mentioned his name! However, he seemed to not to have lied about the directions. His was more detailed than the ones the villagers could give, but nonetheless, his and the directions from the villagers agreed on the most important points.

Iruka just couldn´t figure it out or make sense of it.

"Thank you very much! You really helped us out! Come Iruka we have to go! Good-bye!" Naruto thanked and made his way back.

Iruka could do nothing but look between Naruto and the stranger, back and forth, "Naruto wait up!" Iruka shouted as he finally decided to follow Naruto. However, before Iruka disappeared into the alley, he turned his gaze back to the old lion and eyed him suspiciously for the last time.

The stranger noticed this of course, smiled and mouthed a good-bye to Iruka. Iruka narrowed his eyes, but then turned his head back around again and stormed off into the alley. When he was on the way to catch up to Naruto again, he heard the voice of the lion one last time, "farewell indeed, and you´ll need a lot of good luck! You're going to need it, hahaha" the last part was unheard, because Iruka was already out of earshot.

* * *

The brown and yellow lion were already too far away from the old hut. Otherwise they probably would have been able to hear a noise that sounded suspiciously like a "puff" and left a cloud of white smoke behind. On the spot that was occupied by the old sand-colored lion not even three seconds ago, sat now a young dark brown lion.

He just grinned to himself and with a "mission accomplished! This´ll please leader-sama for sure!" disappeared in another white cloud of smoke, leaving the end of the alley in emptiness and silence. It looked as if that meeting had never taken place.

* * *

Naruto had already arrived at the exit of the alley and had sat down to wait for Iruka. Who came storming right out of the alley, not long after Naruto had sat down, "Naruto tell me, didn´t you find this lion suspicious at all?" Naruto looked at him penetrably and shrugged after some minutes,

"Of course I did, Iurka-sensei! I would have to be extremely naive and dumb to not find him suspicious!" Naruto acknowledged.

Iruka looked at him with wide eyes, "w-what? But why did you-"before he could continue his sentence, Naruto interrupted him, "in order to give him a sense of security, of course. We need every bit of information we can get on Konoha, no matter how small and insignificant they appear to be"

Iruka was literally stunned, he had actually underestimated Naruto and it slowly became painfully clear to him, that Naruto was no longer the small, naive young cub he once was. No, Naruto had grown up.

A happy and proud smile formed on Irukas lips as he smiled at Naruto.

Naruto smiled back. But the moment was completely destroyed on the behalf of Naruto,

"I still can´t believe that there is no ramen in this whole village! Ramen **is**necessary for survival! There is surely nothing better than ramen!" Naruto grumbled and got up to walk down the street to grumble even more.

Iruka just sighed and shook his head. OK, Naruto hadn´t grown up very much. Iruka looked at Naruto, who stood grinning happily and waiting a few meters ahead of him. Iruka walked down the street as well and a smile appeared once again onto his lips.

But maybe it was better that Naruto wasn´t an adult quite yet.

_To be continued  
_

* * *

Dominantes*= counterpart to submissives  
The normal male lions

So that was the newest chapter! And how was it? I hope you all liked it^^

See you next time  
Your Soraki^^


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